General Variables

This section lists all currently predefined general variables of the SDM framework. General information about variables in the SDM framework can be found here: [1]

Network

network: top level node of all network settings
- hostname: hostname of device; ‘‘inventory_hostname’’ is used, if it is undefined
- control_device: name of the network device to be used for the management
- devices: list of all device specific network adapters
  - <device-name>: container for all device specific network settings; is the name on device, e.g. eth0
    - ipv4: IPv4-address of network adapter; undefined or false means disabled
    - ipv6: IPv6-address of network adapter; undefined or false means disabled
    - mac: MAC address of a network adapter
    - class: class of network group (see classes)
    - services: list of services to be used by this network interface (see [[introduction:knownservices | known services]])
    - container: specifies the container that uses this interface
    - static: specifies that a interface uses static network data; default: if IP address is in a DHCP address range the default value is false, otherwise true.
- classes: list of all class specific network settings
  - <class-name>: name of network setting class; is an arbitrary name, e.g. external
    - default: marks network setting class as default, necessary for default gateway (default: false)
    - dhcp: container for DHCP settings. (undefined means unused)
      - ipv4: IPv4 settings for DHCP
        
        from: lower bound of IPv4 DHCP range
        to: upper bound of IPv4 DHCP range
        nextserver: IPv4 address of the TFTP server
      - ipv6: IPv6 settings for DHCP
        
        from: lower bound of IPv6 DHCP range
        to: upper bound of IPv6 DHCP range
        baseurl: base URL of the PXE bootfile
      - bootfile: name of the bootfile on the TFTP server
    - ipv4: container for IPv4 specific network settings (undefined means disabled)
      - prefix: prefix of the IPv4 network
      - gateway: IPv4 address gateway for the network
    - ipv6: container for IPv6 specific network settings (undefined means disabled)
      - prefix: prefix of the IPv6 network
      - gateway: IPv6 address gateway for the network
    - dns: DNS settings of this network class
      - nameservers: DNS-nameservers
        
        ipv4: list of IPv4 addresses
        ipv6: list of IPv6 addresses
      - domain: DNS-searchdomain
      - hostnamepostfix: postfix for hostname; necessary for address resolution in multiple networks
- nat: list of all NAT specific settings
  - extdevice: public network device which the packet is passing through
  - intdevice: network device to which the NAT settings are to be applied
  - ipv4: IPv4 address of device behind the NAT (e.g. 10.0.2.1/24)
  - ipv6: IPv6 address of device behind the NAT (e.g. fdf9:aa91:d725:90dc::2/64)
  - container: specifies the container that uses this interface
  - services: list of services to be used by this network interface (see [[introduction:knownservices | known services]])
  - forwards: list of port forward rules
    - from: source address of layer 3 packet
      - ipv4: IPv4 source address (default: any)
      - ipv6: IPv6 source address (default: any)
      - port: port of layer 4 packet
    - to: NAT destination address of layer 3 packet
      - port: port of layer 4 packet is passing through
      - natport: port of layer 4 packet to which the packet is to be delivered; necessary if destination port and the destination port of device behind the NAT are not equal.
    - protocol: layer 4 protocol (e.g. udp, tcp, icmp, icmp6) (default: tcp)
- firewall: firewall settings
  - type: name of used firewall (e.g. pf on BSD’s or iptables on Linux)
  - rules: list of firewall rules to be used; host rules have a higher priority than group rules
    - action: action type of rule (choices: [pass, block])
    - direction: direction of data (choices: [in, out, all])
    - interfaces: list of the network interfaces the packet is passing through
    - af: address family (choices: [inet, inet6])
    - protocol: layer 4 protocol (e.g. udp, tcp, icmp, icmp6)
    - src_address: source address of IP header
    - src_port: source port of layer 4 packet
    - dst_address: destination address of IP header
    - dst_port: destination port of layer 4 packet

Hint: The IPv4 or IPv6 settings should always be specified even if a device initialises its network adapters via DHCP. The reason for this is, that other processes such as the DHCP or DNS management also uses these settings.

Users and Groups

users: list of additional users for a system
- <name>: name of user
  - home: home path of user’s home (default: /home/)
  - group: primary group of user (default: )
  - password: user’s password (default: “”)
  - createhome: Unless set to False, the home directory will be not created, if it is not exist. (default: True)
  - system: creates a system user, if it is set to True (default: False)
  - shell: defines the user’s shell (default: /bin/sh)
  - expires: expiry time for the user in epoch (default: None)
  - groups: list of secondary users (default:[])
usergroups: list of additional groups for a system
- <name>: name of group
  - system: creates a system group, if it is set to True (default: False)

Localisation

keymap: keymap settings
- map: defines the standard keymap for a system
- toggle: configure a second toggle keymap, by default unset
console: vconsole settings
- font: configures the console font
- font_map: configures the console map
- font_unicode: configures the unicode font map
timezone: defines the timezone for a system
locale: list of locales for a system (syntax: <language>[_<territory>][@modifier][.<codeset>]) (e.g. [en_GB,en_US.ISO-8859-1,de_DE@euro.ISO-8859-15]) (default codeset: UTF-8)

Operation System

os: contains all information about the used operation system
- distribution: name of the system distribution
- architecture: architecture of the system distribution
- release: release version of the system distribution

Storage

disks: contains a list of storage devices with their settings
- device: name of the storage device (e.g. sda, ada0)
- scheme: scheme of the storage device. see parted(8)
- partitions: contains a list of partitions for this storage device, the creation of the partitions starts with the first given
  - size: size of the partition; auto takes the rest of the free storage space (e.g. 1G for one Gigabyte, 100M for 100 Megabyte)
  - fs: type of filesystem
  - mountpoint: mountpoint of a partition
  - mountoptions: mount options of a partition; default: defaults
  - dump: partition which needed to be dumped. default: 0; see fstab(5)
  - pass: order of filesystem checks at boot. default: 0; see fstab(5)
  - format: marks a partition for formatting; Hint: this feature is not supported by every installer
  - flags: contains a list of flag options of a partition. default: []; see parted(8)

sdm_rootdir: defines the path to the SDM root directory. default: “{{ ‘~/sdmroot’ | expanduser }}”
sdm_keystore: defines the path to the SDM keystore directory. default: “{{ sdm_rootdir + ‘/keystore’ }}”
sdm_passwords: defines the path to the SDM passworde directory. default: “{{ sdm_keystore + ‘/passwords’ }}”
sdm_passwordrules: defines the SDM passwordrules. default: “chars=ascii_letters,digits length=15”
sdm_sshkeys: defines the path to the SDM sshkeys directory. default: “{{ sdm_keystore + ‘/sshkeys’ }}”
sdm_certificates: defines the path to the SDM certificates directory. default: “{{ sdm_keystore + ‘/certificates’ }}”
sdm_customfiles: defines the path to the SDM customfiles directory. default: “{{ sdm_rootdir + ‘/files’ }}”
sdm_customtemplates: defines the path to SDM customtemplates directory. default: “{{ sdm_rootdir + ‘/templates’ }}”

Miscellaneous

function: defines the function of a host or a host group
netbootloader: defines a specific network bootloader that is used (e.g. pxelinux, ipxe, etc.)